Peasant Meal

Support The single, horizontally grained oak plank is approx. 1.2 cm thick. The reverse is bevelled on all sides. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1604. The panel could have been ready for use by 1615, but a date in or after 1621 is more likely.
Preparatory layers The single, thin, off-white ground extends over the edges of the support. It consists of white pigment particles with a tiny addition of earth pigments.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the edges of the support. The composition was painted quickly and efficiently in what appear to be only one or two layers. The figures were reserved in the background, leaving the ground locally exposed along the contours. They were laid in wet in wet in thin blended layers indicating light and dark areas. Thin brushstrokes were used to delineate forms and contours and indicate highlights. Delicate hatching was used for some of the highlighted areas, for instance in the white hat of the girl with her back to the viewer. A semi-transparent dark brown paint was used for the shadows on the floor and table. The print on the wall was indicated by scratching into the wet paint. Infrared photography revealed that the contour of the fireplace on the left was made slightly smaller. The paint layers are thin, with the exception of the more opaque darker grey area in the upper right background and the slightly impasted highlights and contours.
Ige Verslype, 2022

Fair. The paint surface is abraded throughout, especially along the grain of the wood. There are tiny paint losses exposing the ground and/or the support throughout.

…; collection Cornelis Hoogendijk (1866-1911), The Hague; from whom on loan to the museum, 1907-11;¹¹Verslagen omtrent ’s Rijks verzamelingen van geschiedenis en kunst 1907 (annual report of the Rijksmuseum), p. 32, as Pieter Pietersz de Bloot, SK-C-840. donated from his estate to the museum, May 1912

ObjectNumber: SK-A-2555

Credit line: Gift of the heirs of C. Hoogendijk, The Hague

This painting of a mother at table with three children is closely related to the repertoire of Pieter Quast, and more generally to scenes in the peasant genre by Adriaen Brouwer and the Van Ostades.⁶⁶For Quast, who often placed his signature on a similar stool, see SK-A-1756. For Brouwer and the Van Ostades see, for example, R. Klessmann, ‘Die Anfänge des Bauerninterieurs bei den Brüdern Ostade’, Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 2 (1960), pp. 92-115; K. Renger and H. von Sonnenburg, Adriaen Brouwer und das niederländische Bauerngenre 1600-1660, exh. cat. Munich (Alte Pinakothek) 1986. For a long time it passed as a work by Pieter de Bloot, but has been attributed to Jan Jansz Buesem since 1960.⁷⁷A. van Schendel, Catalogue of Paintings Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1960, p. 63. It is very similar to other pictures of his in style and subject matter. The characteristic way in which the highlights are applied to the earthenware with dashes one above the other is found in another painting by the artist.⁸⁸Vanitas Still Life, present whereabouts unknown; illustrated in the catalogue for the sale, New York (Sotheby’s), 6 October 1995, no. 98 (as Cornelis Saftleven). The headgear with broad brims hiding the wearer’s eyes also features in a few scenes of peasants playing cards and carousing in taverns.⁹⁹Such as Peasants Playing Cards, present whereabouts unknown; illustrated in W. Bernt, Die niederländischen Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts, IV, Munich 1962, no. 41. Peasants Dancing and Smoking in an Inn, Dennis Ward collection, Hove (Sussex), 1959; photo RKD. Village School, present whereabouts unknown; illustrated in 32a Mostra maestri fiamminghi ed olandesi del XVI-XVII secolo, dealer cat. Turin (Galleria Luigi Caretto) 1991, II, p. 9. It is a motif that seems to have been inspired by Brouwer’s oeuvre, although ultimately it derives from types by Pieter Brueghel I.¹⁰¹⁰See K. Renger and H. von Sonnenburg, Adriaen Brouwer und das niederländische Bauerngenre 1600-1660, exh. cat. Munich (Alte Pinakothek) 1986, p. 30. Some of Buesem’s faceless worker types tend towards the caricature. The mother in the Rijksmuseum panel is blowing on a spoon of porridge for the youngest child, which is impatiently bawling for food on the right. In order to accentuate its agitation Buesem gave it a thick red nose and added highlights to moisten its cheeks. The other children are anxiously awaiting their turns, one of them holding a spoon, the other with its mouth wide open.

The interior and the household goods are often regarded as typical for the lowest classes in the seventeenth century. A fire is burning in the simple hearth on the left, with the cloud of smoke indicating that the chimney needs sweeping. Standing on the plain wooden floor is a still life of the very simplest earthenware.¹¹¹¹For Buesem’s painting as an example of the depiction of the coarse earthenware typically used by the working classes see, for example, J. de Kleyn, ‘Wat de pot aan schoonheid schaft: Oud volksaardewerk’, Openbaar Kunstbezit TV 2 (1964), no. 6, and C. Wilcoxen, ‘Household Artifacts of New Netherland, from its Archeological and Documentary Records’, Bulletin Koninklijke Nederlandse Oudheidkundige Bond 84 (1985), pp. 120-29, esp. pp. 120-21. It includes a coal pan, a jug, pots, jars and dishes, which were evidently not only used to prepare food but also to eat from. The sober interior is decorated with a print of an unidentifiable scene that has been pinned to the wall. The furniture is also of the plainest kind. The youngest girl is sitting on a chair resting on wide planks which have been broken off rather than sawn properly. The earthenware bowl underneath it is probably a chamberpot. The seat on the right has been made the same way, and appears to be a potty stool.¹²¹²The same stools are found in works by Pieter Quast, like The Foot Operation, SK-A-1756.

Peasant Meal was probably made around 1630, which is the year of the artist’s only dated painting in this genre.¹³¹³Dancing Peasants in a Barn, present whereabouts unknown; illustrated in Rare sculture: Importanti dipinti di antichi maestri, dealer cat. Venice (Finarte Semenzato) 2005, no. 38. In addition, by that time he seems to have been in touch with Pieter Quast, to whose work this picture is related. The dendrochronology, finally, indicates that a slightly earlier date cannot be ruled out either.¹⁴¹⁴See Technical notes.

Erlend de Groot, 2022

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

1920, p. 81, no. 535a (as Pieter de Bloot); 1934, p. 51, no. 535a (as Pieter de Bloot); 1960, p. 63, no. 658 AF1; 1976, p. 157, no. A 2555

Erlend de Groot, 2022, 'attributed to Jan Jansz. Buesem, Peasant Meal, c. 1625 - c. 1635', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8098